About

CoCoon is a sector for planning, design and construction in an intercultural and interdisciplinary context. It combines teaching, research, practice and networking. It creates awareness of the social and cultural implication of doing architecture.

CoCoon promotes sustainability and social engagement in the production of living environments. CoCoon is dedicated to the DesignBuild-methodology, fostering academy to dedicate knowledge as service for the community. CoCoon is associated with university departments as well as nonacademic organisations and experts.

CoCoon was founded in April 2005, based on the experiences of the ‘Praxisseminar Mexiko’ 2000-2004 and the seminar ‘Students Building in Kabul’ 2003. CoCoon is collaborating with the Natural Building Lab at TU Berlin and the Hochschule München and forms a GbR (Gesellschaft bürgerlichen Rechts).

Teaching: CoCoon offers seminars in design, construction and documentation for students related to the built environment. CoCoon is both initiator and collaborator in different international and interdisciplinary academic exchange programmes. It assists student lead-research and stimulates intercultural exchange. CoCoon embeds the principles of the United Nations World Decade of “Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)” in its work.

Research: CoCoon investigates praxis-related forms of architectural education, bridging the gap between theory and reality. CoCoon conducts research regarding vernacular building techniques and analyses its contextual, social and sustainability relevance for contemporary architecture.

Practice: CoCoon is dedicated to the construction of buildings and open spaces as part of the academic education. It offers students the chance to experience some of the greatest challenges of doing architecture in the field. The work is based on interdisciplinary, international and intercultural cooperation.

Networking: CoCoon believes in the high outcome of “service learning” and offers a cooperation base for execution projects, seminars, exchange of knowledge, people and contacts for academia and society. CoCoon directs the development of the interactive dbXchange.eu network forming part of the network: Design for the Common Good.

Team

Ursula Hartig

Ursula Hartig founded CoCoon in 2004. Since march 2017 she holds a professorship at the University of Applied Sciences in Munich. She became a research fellow at the Department of Architecture, TU Berlin in 1997. Since 2001 she has been a project manager and director of TU Berlin‘s DesignBuild Studios including planning, realisation and documentation of buildings and environments in Mexico and Afghanistan. Since 1987 she worked as collaborator and project manager in different Architecture offices in Berlin. She holds a Master in Architecture (Diplom Ingenieur) from the Technische Universität Berlin.

2017- ongoing Professor for planning an building in a global context, University of Applid Sciences, Munich

Nina Pawlicki

Nina Pawlicki has been a member of CoCoon – contextual construction since 2011, she has been a teaching and research associate at the Department of Architecture, Technische Universität Berlin since 2013. In 2009 she participated in CoCoons DesignBuild-Studio ‘Praktikumsseminar Mexiko’, where she works as project manager and construction supervisor ever since. She has a wide range of experiences from working as a freelance architect for different architecture offices. Nina studied architecture at the Technische Universität Berlin and the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

2012 ‘DesignBuild-Studio: New Ways in Architectural Education’, first international encounter of DesignBuild-Studios and their network partners; co-initiator

2011 Diploma at the Technische Universität Berlin

Simon Colwill

Simon Colwill has been a member of CoCoon – contextual construction since 2007. He studied “Landscape Architecture” at the University of Greenwich in London and moved to Berlin, Germany in 1995 where he worked as a freelancer with a focus on landscape design, town planning, detailing and design competitions. Since 2004, he has been a teaching and research associate at the Department of Landscape Design and Construction at the Technische Universität in Berlin, supervising many study projects and seminars in the bachelor and master’s program. He has been involved in a number of DesignBuild projects in Mexico, Bolivia, Egypt and in Germany.

2014 – 2018 ‘Landscape Architecture and the Time Factor’, Research Projekt funded by the DFG (German Reasearch Foundation) at the Technische Universität Berlin

2013-2016 ‘European DesignBuild Knowledge Network’, research project based at the Habitat Unit, Department of Architecture, Prof. Misselwitz, Technische Universität Berlin. The project is funded by the European Union, Erasmus Mundus program.

Fundación Cultural Rodolfo Morales, Ocotlan de Morelos, Oaxca, Mexico; Cultural Foundation, Projects: Restauration of a Church Roof in Mudejar Style (2001), Restauration of a retable in the Church of Santa Ana Zegache (2001), Marketposts for Santa Ana Zegache, Music-School for Children (2003), Stage and Outdoorkitchen for the Musicschool (2007)